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I brake for bullsnakes

By Katherin Engelhard

Posted:
02/18/2013 02:59:02 PM MST

Updated:
02/18/2013 03:00:10 PM MST

I love bullsnakes. It makes me very sad to see them run over, squished on the road by a car. And it doesn't make sense: I'll see cars purposefully run over a bullsnake but just about cause a collision or roll their car dodging a prairie dog on the road.

Bullsnakes help keep the rodent population under control, and it is said they keep the rattlesnakes away. Bullsnakes look similar to rattlers and can sound like a rattler, too. But if you look closely, the bullsnake is hissing, puffing up with and then releasing air, mimicking the rattler's sound. The rattlesnake, you will notice, has his rattle up in the air a-shaking it at you -- a pretty fearful sight -- and you'd better back away unless you got your shotgun or shovel handy.

I won't touch a rattlesnake, but I will catch a bullsnake if he's not too big. They are fun to show to the children and play with for a while. One of my favorite pictures is of my little Audrey (now 24) standing in a plastic swimming pool with a real-live little bullsnake hanging around her neck.

A bullsnake can bite, although it is not poisonous. I'm sure it might hurt if a big one bit you -- I don't know; I've never been bitten by one, or stung by a scorpion for that matter, even though those were not uncommon sights in west Texas, where I grew up. A few of my relatives did get stung (by a scorpion), but I never did.

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Roadrunners were also not an uncommon sight -- they are the funnest to see. They run as fast as the roadrunner you see on the cartoon shows. My dad caught us a baby roadrunner that we kept for a few days one time, before letting it go. That ought to tell you how fast a runner my daddy was back in his day.

Did you ever get into those arguments with your friends? "My daddy's smarter than your daddy."

"Well so what. My daddy can whip your daddy."

"Well my daddy'll put your daddy in jail."

"Unng-unngh. My daddy's the Sheriff, and he owns the jail."

"Well my daddy owns this town."

"Well my daddy owns the county!"

"Whatever. Let's get a coke and see if Sherri and Terri can come outside and play and help us look for horny toads."

We caught lots of horny toads. We'd try to sell them for a nickel. Never did sell too many. In fact, I don't think we ever did sell a one. Everyone just said they could go catch their own darn horny toads, and, "Run along now, you little whippersnappers." Except Grandmother. She called us whistle-britches.

Baby horny toads are the cutest little things in the world. The big ones can be a little scary because they can shoot blood out of their eye at you. But it doesn't hurt. They only squirt blood to momentarily blind a predator. Never was I squirted with blood by any horny toad.

But my cousin had her tongue bit by a snapping turtle once. And my little sister brought baby frogs home from the pond in her mouth, so they wouldn't dry out and die. She really loved animals.

Once at Padre Island, Daddy saw her wandering alone a way far yonder down the beach. She was 7. He put it in roadrunner-gear and caught up with her. Tears were streaming down her face. She'd gotten stung by a man-of-war and was walking down the beach to go die alone. She did not want to bother everybody with her dying. Mamarie put meat tenderizer on the sting. The papaya in meat tenderizer neutralizes jellyfish and man-of-war stings.

Then I caught a nearly 4-foot-long hammerhead shark on my fishing pole, but he bit the line in two before we could get him to shore. So what did we do? We waded back out into the water and kept fishing. We weren't scared none. That was before the movie "Jaws."

So see, I do like animals. I even like prairie dogs, but will not risk my life or yours by dodging them in my car.

But watch out: If a bullsnake is on the road, I will stop and help him across. I think I'll make a bumper sticker for my car: I break for bullsnakes.

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